Need a totally awesome magical beast to make your show that much more awesome? Why make one up when mythology's done it for you? The Behemoth, the Leviathan, maybe a dragon or two. In works involving the afterlife, you can even expect Cerberus to make an appearance.

But wait...in their original forms, these guys weren't quite awesome enough! We need to give him NEW powers so he presents a real threat to our heroes (or our villains). Behold the power of creative license! Time for a MythologyUpgrade!

Cerberus not cool enough? Let's give him a [[BishonenLine human form!]] Raging dragons not doing it for you? Let's make them [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons superintelligent and magic-resistant!]] Leviathan not dangerous enough in the water? Let's make him [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry FLY!]]

Note that the Mythology Upgrade refers specifically to an already established creature of legend who gets entirely new powers, not one that just mysteriously got more powerful. Compare PublicDomainArtifact, SadlyMythtaken. AdaptationalBadass often ensues.----!!Examples:

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[[folder:Action]]* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 3'' makes heavy use of this trope:** The legendary [[Literature/TheBible Leviathan]] (a sea-monster) here is an enormous flying creature with a demonic immune system, which Dante has to fight through to kill the creature from the inside out. ** [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Cerberus]] (the Underworld's guard dog) still guards the gateway to hell, but now has some wicked ice powers (which may be a homage to the coldness of hell in Dante's ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]'').** Other examples include Literature/{{Beowulf}} as a [[LightIsNotGood light]]-flinging demon and [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Geryon]] having time-control powers. * ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon'' featured the sun god Adrammelech as a giant, eyeball controlling, ooze gagging goat thing that [[ThatOneBoss pissed off players]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:First Person Shooter]]* Many of the monsters from ''VideoGame/WillRock'' have extra powers: the Minotaurs can [[AsteroidsMonster split in two lesser ones]] when slain, the Harpies shoot fireballs, Cyclops have goat legs and can eat and spit hot stone pellets and Orthuses can spit fire and acid from their heads.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Roguelike]]* This isn't a ''VideoGame/NetHack''-only feature but the lore change of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa Gorgon Medusa]] is probably the most famous mythological ''downgrade'' of any mythological monster. Originally, Perseus faced the Gorgon by looking at her reflection in his mirrored shield and cutting her head off. Over time, a more pacifist approach was adopted that Medusa could stone herself by looking at her own reflection.[[/folder]]

[[folder:RPG]]* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' and all its incarnations, with various demons and mythological figures.* Several of the enemies and almost all of the summons in the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' franchise are creatures or characters taken from mythology and given new powers.** Bahamut, who makes an appearance in almost every game, is the King and/or God of all dragons. In his ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' incarnation, he (while not necessarily being more powerful than the mythological Bahamut) has a giant ring on his back which charges with energy to unleash his [[LimitBreak Overdrive,]] which is basically a [[FrickinLaserBeams giant blue laser.]]** Leviathan in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' does fly.** Adrammelech, a sun god, [[RuleOfCool for some reason]] has electric powers and looks like a dragon.** [[Myth/IrishMythology Cu Chulainn]], Ixion, and many other figures bear [[InNameOnly almost no resemblance to their mythological counterparts]].** Odin keeps showing up as the instant-death summon, and is [[UselessUsefulSpell infamous for his unreliability]].** [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] is all over the place in the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series. In his original myth, he is the king of Uruk, and essentially the strongest man ever. In the ''Final Fantasy'' series as a whole, he has eight arms and wanders across various dimensions looking for rare swords. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', he's a general in Ex-Death's army, and once took out an entire army by himself. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', he's an Esper (though only in the remakes). In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', he's a replacement for the Guardian Force Odin, and can even one-shot certain bosses for you. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', he's [[spoiler:Alleyway Jack, the pickpocket/treasure hunter that teaches you to play cards]]. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', he's a formidable opponent who keeps getting stronger. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'', he's one of the DLC arena bosses, and seems to be quite weak at first... until he ditches the assault rifles and rocket launchers, picks up his swords, and powers up to the point of effectively invincible over the course of the fight [[spoiler:unless you can kill him from 4.5 million hp in one stagger]].** Gilgamesh's companion Enkidu was affected, too. He's some kind of demonic buddy to the Gilgamesh Esper in the GBA remake of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', and in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' he's... a dog. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has him as a green chicken.* WhiteWolf also generally did this with their ''Werewolf'' game lines. It's not enough that they're shapeshifting killing machines -- to fit roughly in with the themes of works such as ''The Howling'' and ''Wolfen'', werewolves also have ties to nature that give them access to the SpiritWorld and a special relationship with its denizens. Whether this relationship is "[[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse stalwart defenders]]" or "[[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken border police]]" depends on the gameline.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Shooter]]* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' has most of its LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters taken from Japanese mythology. [[MoeAnthropomorphism They all look like little girls]] and are each capable of [[BulletHell Curtain Fire]], an ability notably absent in their source material.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Game]]* TabletopGame/{{Scion}} upgrades various mythological beings with modern elements. Examples include Centaurs as half-human and half-Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Scylla having machine replacements for its monster heads, and Surtr's main fortress in Muspelheim being able to transform into a HumongousMecha.* ''{{Rifts}}'' has many, many examples, but one familiar to even casual players of the game would be dragons. Dragons in ''Rifts'' have PsychicPowers, VoluntaryShapeshifting, and {{Teleportation}} as standard abilities, on top of the normal breath weapon and flying abilities. They're also intelligent at birth due to GeneticMemory. Oh, and hatchlings are available as player characters.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other Media]]* ''Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic'' -- The animated short had Cerberus, who was already pretty frightening as a three headed fire breathing dog, reinvisioned as a giant colon like monster with many mouths and residing as a guardian in the third circle of Hell, Gluttony. The gluttonous souls swallowed by Cerberus are forever denied the pleasures they overindulged in while alive. Cerberus's stomach is also the realm that Dante had to cross to enter the next circle of Hell.* An arc of the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime gave the Leviathan strange powers related to souls and [[SeriousBusiness children's card games]]. It could apparently make people immortal and/or "awaken the darkness in their hearts", and was said to be responsible for the fall of {{Atlantis}}.* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' a succubus is a bus that sucks you up. [[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/050822 Seriously.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:General]]* Dragons are perhaps the greatest recipients of this trope. Besides their animal ferocity and often venom or fire breath, most myths didn't give them many additional powers. [[NewerThanTheyThink Modern sources]], however, almost always depict dragons as gigantic beings of incredible physical and magical strength. ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' certainly helped to start this trend. See OurDragonsAreDifferent for the various permutations.** Earlier than Dungeons and Dragons, Creator/JRRTolkien's dragons were huge, highly intelligent, possessed magical powers (particularly mind-bending magic), and were quite possibly incarnate minor deities, if evil ones. WordOfGod admitted a certain fondness for this particular creature, so he used them sparingly but when he wanted to go for grand effect.** And the magic powers and wisdom come from the Asian dragons that are essentially minor gods or elemental powers.* It should be noted that in the myth Bahamut isn't exactly carrying the world, though it is the most common interpretation and perhaps what the original myth intended, the exact words say that it was carrying: "all of god's creation". [[Creator.JorgeLuisBorges Some authors]] have played with this and stated that what it is actually holding is the [[BiggerIsBetter universe]]. This is actually an [[IncrediblyLamePun enormous]] literature upgrade.* Cerberus deserves a special mention in any appearance he makes, since the original creature, depending on which myth you're going by, had snakes growing from his back and was formed by/had skin made of the ''squirming souls of the dead.'' On top of that, its saliva was poisonous and once stopped a Titan from escaping the underworld. Which practically makes many of his appearances a Mythology ''Down''grade.

* Arachne is simply a progenitor of all spiders in Myth/ClassicalMythology. If there are monsters with that name in modern works, they are always half-spider half-woman beings with human size, if not larger.[[/folder]]----